Vincent Village held an open house for a newly built home on the 2700 block of Lillie Street, on Fort Wayne’s southside near the Vincent Village campus.
The home will house a family currently living at a local shelter that may have faced barriers when buying a home. It’s the end of a six-home effort that saw four local homes renovated and two completely rebuilt from the ground up since last winter.
Vincent Village executive director Denise Andorfer says the project is allowing local families that have fallen on hard times a fresh start.
“It’s really important, because it’s very easy for all those past issues that led to homelessness to keep reoccurring if there isn’t a lot of proactive work with them,” Andorfer said.
Andorfer says families will also receive support services in the home for five years, to help ensure the cycle of homelessness doesn’t continue.
The projects were completed using $400,000 in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dollars, which were granted to Vincent Village by the City of Fort Wayne.
Kelly Lundberg is the deputy director of the city’s Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services. She says by investing in homes like these, the city is effectively helping two families.
“By allowing the family to move out of a shelter, the impact trickles down so it opens up a room in the Vincent Village house, it also opens up a room in the emergency shelters and it just keeps trickling down. So the impact is much more than one family,” said Lundberg.
Mayor Tom Henry and local community leaders were present for the open house, which Andorfer provided brief tours of throughout the morning.
